Senator Bill Cassidy is urging the NCAA to explore an age limit and limits on foreign athletes. Andrew Greenstein reports.
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A game played in New Orleans is part of the FBI’s evidence that resulted in the arrest of an NBA player for illegal sports betting. Jeff Palermo has the story…
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Senator Bill Cassidy is urging the NCAA to explore age limits for collegiate athletes. Cassidy says he initially became concerned following a conversation with a legendary Louisiana collegiate coach.
This comes as more and more schools recruit older athletes from overseas. For instance, LSU’s men’s basketball team has a freshman from Israel on its roster named Ron Zipper, who will turn 23 years old during the season. Cassidy says with most collegiate freshmen, athletes or otherwise, being 18 or 19 years old, that puts them at a competitive disadvantage.
Cassidy says American universities should provide opportunities for American citizens first and foremost. He says he does mind an occasional overseas player on an NCAA roster, but there needs to be limitations.
Cassidy noted that LSU had recruited Eddie Palubinskas from Australia in the early 1970s as a 22-year-old and was later an assistant coach for the Tigers, trying to teach Shaquille O’Neal how to make free throws, with very limited success.
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The cameras have been rolling in Louisiana and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Jason Waggenspack, the president of Film Louisiana, says there are several films being shot in Louisiana as we speak.
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Waggenspack says after years of going overseas, film production is shifting back to the states; and he says Louisiana is the perfect state for filmmakers to shoot their projects.
Waggenspack says filmmakers – and television producers – are showing a greater willingness to produce their films and shows domestically instead of going overseas.
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A new statewide poll finds President Trump’s favorable rating in Louisiana is 48-percent, but Governor Jeff Landry’s is only 39-percent. JMC Analytics and Polling pollster John Couvillon says Landry had an aggressive legislative agenda during his first year in office and that might have turned off a few voters.
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In Landry’s first year in office, he got lawmakers to approve a tough on crime legislative package, tax reform, displaying the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom and changing federal elections to a party primary election system.
Couvillon believes Landry is having a hard time connecting with voters.
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The poll also asked voters if they thought the state is heading in the right direction. Only 26 percent said it is heading in the right direction, 54-percent say it’s heading in the wrong direction and 20-percent did not have an opinion. Couvillon says the poll of 600 likely voters was conducted last week and the federal government shutdown probably played a role in the responses.
Louisiana Radio Network reached out for response from the governor’s office, and one his consultants pointed out that the group that paid for the poll, Unite America, supports groups with a strong, liberal bias.
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The FBI cites a NBA game played in New Orleans as part of its evidence into illegal sports betting. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is among more than 30 people charged in a massive investigation into illegal NBA betting and rigged poker games. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says in March of 2023, Rozier took himself out of a game early at the Smoothie King Center to ensure he would underperform.
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According to the official NBA stats, Rozier only played ten minutes in that game, which the Pelicans won 115-96. Tisch says the defendants placed more than 200-thousand dollars in wagers on the “unders” of his prop bets, and those bets paid out ten of thousands of dollars in profits.
Tisch says Rozier has played his last game in the NBA.
Rozier was arrested Thursday morning at a hotel in Orlando, Florida. He’s facing money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges, according to the indictment.